HTML and CSS Tutorial

Learn little bit HTML and CSS for WordPress

What is HTML?

HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages
HTML describes the structure of a Web page
HTML consists of a series of elements
HTML elements tell the browser how to display the content
HTML elements label pieces of content such as “this is a heading”, “this is a paragraph”, “this is a link”, etc.

HTML Example with HTML Editor

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

Example Explained

The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document
The <html> element is the root element of an HTML page
The <head> element contains meta information about the HTML page
The <title> element specifies a title for the HTML page (which is shown in the browser’s title bar or in the page’s tab)
The <body> element defines the document’s body, and is a container for all the visible contents, such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc.
The <h1> element defines a large heading
The <p> element defines a paragraph

What is an HTML Element?

An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:

<tagname> Content goes here… </tagname>

The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>

<p>My first paragraph.</p>

Start tag	Element content	End tag
<h1>	My First Heading	</h1>
<p>	My first paragraph.	</p>
<br>	none	none

HTML text Editors

Learn HTML Using Notepad or TextEdit

Web pages can be created and modified by using professional HTML editors.

However, for learning HTML we recommend a simple text editor like Notepad (PC) or TextEdit (Mac).

We believe that using a simple text editor is a good way to learn HTML.

Follow the steps below to create your first web page with Notepad or TextEdit.

Step 1: Open Notepad (PC)

Windows 8 or later:

Open the Start Screen (the window symbol at the bottom left on your screen). Type Notepad.

Windows 7 or earlier:

Open Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad

Step 1: Open TextEdit (Mac)

Open Finder > Applications > TextEdit

Also change some preferences to get the application to save files correctly. In Preferences > Format > choose “Plain Text”

Then under “Open and Save”, check the box that says “Display HTML files as HTML code instead of formatted text”.

Then open a new document to place the code.

HTML Tags

HTML tags are like keywords which defines that how web browser will format and display the content. With the help of tags, a web browser can distinguish between an HTML content and a simple content. HTML tags contain three main parts: opening tag, content and closing tag. But some HTML tags are unclosed tags.

When a web browser reads an HTML document, browser reads it from top to bottom and left to right. HTML tags are used to create HTML documents and render their properties. Each HTML tags have different properties.

An HTML file must have some essential tags so that web browser can differentiate between a simple text and HTML text. You can use as many tags you want as per your code requirement.

All HTML tags must enclosed within < > these brackets.
Every tag in HTML perform different tasks.
If you have used an open tag <tag>, then you must use a close tag </tag> (except some tags)

Syntax

<tag> content </tag>

HTML Tag Examples

Note: HTML Tags are always written in lowercase letters. The basic HTML tags are given below:

<p> Paragraph Tag </p>

<h2> Heading Tag </h2>

<i> Italic Tag </i>

<u> Underline Tag</u>

Unclosed HTML Tags

Some HTML tags are not closed, for example br and hr.

<br> Tag: br stands for break line, it breaks the line of the code.

<hr> Tag: hr stands for Horizontal Rule. This tag is used to put a line across the webpage.

HTML Meta Tags

DOCTYPE, title, link, meta and style

HTML Text Tags

HTML Link Tags

HTML Image and Object Tags

HTML List Tags

HTML Table Tags

table, tr, td, th, tbody, thead, tfoot, col, colgroup and caption

HTML Form Tags

form, input, textarea, select, option, optgroup, button, label, fieldset and legend

HTML Scripting Tags

script and noscript

Note: We will see examples using these tags in later charters.

HTML Text Formatting

TML Formatting Elements

Formatting elements were designed to display special types of text:

<b> – Bold text
<strong> – Important text
<i> – Italic text
<em> – Emphasized text
<mark> – Marked text
<small> – Smaller text
<del> – Deleted text
<ins> – Inserted text
<sub> – Subscript text
<sup> – Superscript text

How to Use Fonts Tag with HTML Properties?

HTML <font> Tag

Not Supported in HTML5.

The <font> tag was used in HTML 4 to specify the font face, font size, and color of text.

Example

Set the color of text (with CSS):

<p style=”color:red”>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p style=”color:blue”>This is another paragraph.</p

Example

Set the font of text (with CSS):

<p style=”font-family:verdana”>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p style=”font-family:’Courier New'”>This is another paragraph.</p>

Example

Set the size of text (with CSS):

<p style=”font-size:30px”>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p style=”font-size:11px”>This is another paragraph.</p>

How to create a Table in HTML?

Example

A simple HTML table:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Company</th>
    <th>Contact</th>
    <th>Country</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>Alfreds Futterkiste</td>
    <td>Maria Anders</td>
    <td>Germany</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Centro comercial Moctezuma</td>
    <td>Francisco Chang</td>
    <td>Mexico</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Table Cells

Each table cell is defined by a <td> and a </td> tag.

Everything between <td> and </td> are the content of the table cell.

Example

<table>
  <tr>
  <td>Emil</td>
    <td>Tobias</td>
    <td>Linus</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Table Rows

Each table row starts with a <tr> and ends with a </tr> tag.

Example

<table>
  <tr>
  <td>Emil</td>
    <td>Tobias</td>
    <td>Linus</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>16</td>
    <td>14</td>
    <td>10</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Table Headers

Sometimes you want your cells to be table header cells. In those cases use the <th> tag instead of the <td> tag:

<table>
  <tr>
  <th>Person 1</th>
    <th>Person 2</th>
    <th>Person 3</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>Emil</td>
    <td>Tobias</td>
    <td>Linus</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>16</td>
    <td>14</td>
    <td>10</td>
  </tr>
</table>

HTML Table Tags

Tag	Description
<table>	Defines a table
<th>	Defines a header cell in a table
<tr>	Defines a row in a table
<td>	Defines a cell in a table
<caption>	Defines a table caption
<colgroup>	Specifies a group of one or more columns in a table for formatting
<col>	Specifies column properties for each column within a <colgroup> element
<thead>	Groups the header content in a table
<tbody>	Groups the body content in a table
<tfoot>	Groups the footer content in a table

How to Display a List with HTML? (Unordered Lists)

HTML Unordered Lists

Unordered HTML List

An unordered list starts with the <ul> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

The list items will be marked with bullets (small black circles) by default:

Example

<ul>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ul>

Unordered HTML List – Choose List Item Marker

The CSS list-style-type property is used to define the style of the list item marker. It can have one of the following values:

Value	Description
disc	Sets the list item marker to a bullet (default)
circle	Sets the list item marker to a circle
square	Sets the list item marker to a square
none	The list items will not be marked

Example – Disc

<ul style=”list-style-type:disc;”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ul>

Example – Circle

<ul style=”list-style-type:circle;”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ul>

Example – Square

<ul style=”list-style-type:square;”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ul>

Example – None

<ul style=”list-style-type:none;”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ul>

How to Display a List with HTML? (Ordered Lists)

HTML Ordered Lists

The HTML <ol> tag defines an ordered list. An ordered list can be numerical or alphabetical.

Ordered HTML List

An ordered list starts with the <ol> tag. Each list item starts with the <li> tag.

The list items will be marked with numbers by default:

Example

<ol>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Ordered HTML List – The Type Attribute

The type attribute of the <ol> tag, defines the type of the list item marker:

Type	Description
type=”1″	The list items will be numbered with numbers (default)
type=”A”	The list items will be numbered with uppercase letters
type=”a”	The list items will be numbered with lowercase letters
type=”I”	The list items will be numbered with uppercase roman numbers
type=”i”	The list items will be numbered with lowercase roman numbers

Numbers:

<ol type=”1″>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Uppercase Letters:

<ol type=”A”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Lowercase Letters:

<ol type=”a”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Uppercase Roman Numbers:

<ol type=”I”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Lowercase Roman Numbers:

<ol type=”i”>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ol>

Control List Counting

By default, an ordered list will start counting from 1. If you want to start counting from a specified number, you can use the start attribute:

Example

<ol start=”50″>
  <li>Coffee</li>
  <li>Tea</li>
  <li>Milk</li>
</ol>

How to Display an Image with HTML?

Images can improve the design and the appearance of a web page.

Example

Syntax

How to Display a YouTube video with HTML?

The easiest way to play videos in HTML, is to use YouTube.

Example

YouTube Autoplay + Mute

You can let your video start playing automatically when a user visits the page, by adding autoplay=1 to the YouTube URL. However, automatically starting a video is annoying for your visitors!

Note: Chromium browsers do not allow autoplay in most cases. However, muted autoplay is always allowed.

Add mute=1 after autoplay=1 to let your video start playing automatically (but muted).

YouTube – Autoplay + Muted

YouTube Loop

Add loop=1 to let your video loop forever.

Value 0 (default): The video will play only once.

Value 1: The video will loop (forever).

YouTube – Loop

Add loop=1 to let your video loop forever.

Value 0 (default): The video will play only once.

Value 1: The video will loop (forever).

YouTube Controls

Add controls=0 to not display controls in the video player.

Value 0: Player controls does not display.

Value 1 (default): Player controls display.

YouTube – Controls

What is CSS?

CSS is the language we use to style a Web page.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
CSS describes how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, paper, or in other media
CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once
External stylesheets are stored in CSS files

CSS Example

body {
  background-color: lightblue;
}

h1 {
  color: white;
  text-align: center;
}

p {
font-family: verdana;
  font-size: 20px;
}

CSS Syntax

CSS is the language we use to style a Web page.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets
CSS describes how HTML elements are to be displayed on screen, paper, or in other media
CSS saves a lot of work. It can control the layout of multiple web pages all at once
External stylesheets are stored in CSS files

CSS

Example

In this example all <p> elements will be center-aligned, with a red text color:

p {
color: red;
text-align: center;
}

Example Explained

p is a selector in CSS (it points to the HTML element you want to style: <p>).
color is a property, and red is the property value
text-align is a property, and center is the property value

CSS Selectors

A CSS selector selects the HTML element(s) you want to style.

CSS Selectors

CSS selectors are used to “find” (or select) the HTML elements you want to style.

The CSS element Selector

The element selector selects HTML elements based on the element name.

Example

Here, all <p> elements on the page will be center-aligned, with a red text color:

p {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

The CSS id Selector

The id selector uses the id attribute of an HTML element to select a specific element.

The id of an element is unique within a page, so the id selector is used to select one unique element!

To select an element with a specific id, write a hash (#) character, followed by the id of the element.

Example

The CSS rule below will be applied to the HTML element with id=”para1″:

#para1 {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

Note: An id name cannot start with a number!

The CSS class Selector

The class selector selects HTML elements with a specific class attribute.

To select elements with a specific class, write a period (.) character, followed by the class name.

Example

In this example all HTML elements with class=”center” will be red and center-aligned:

.center {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

You can also specify that only specific HTML elements should be affected by a class.

Example

In this example only <p> elements with class=”center” will be red and center-aligned:

p.center {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

HTML elements can also refer to more than one class.

Example

In this example the <p> element will be styled according to class=”center” and to class=”large”:

<p class=”center large”>This paragraph refers to two classes.</p>

The CSS Universal Selector

The universal selector (*) selects all HTML elements on the page.

Example

The CSS rule below will affect every HTML element on the page:

* {
text-align: center;
color: blue;
}

The CSS Grouping Selector

The grouping selector selects all the HTML elements with the same style definitions.

Look at the following CSS code (the h1, h2, and p elements have the same style definitions):

h1 {
  text-align: center;
  color: red;
}

h2 {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

p {
  text-align: center;
  color: red;
}

It will be better to group the selectors, to minimize the code.

To group selectors, separate each selector with a comma.

Example

In this example we have grouped the selectors from the code above:

h1, h2, p {
text-align: center;
color: red;
}

All CSS Simple Selectors

Selector	Example	Example description
#id	#firstname	Selects the element with id=”firstname”
.class	.intro	Selects all elements with class=”intro”
element.class	p.intro	Selects only <p> elements with class=”intro”
*	*	Selects all elements
element	p	Selects all <p> elements
element,element,..	div, p	Selects all <div> elements and all <p> elements

CSS Borders

The CSS border properties allow you to specify the style, width, and color of an element’s border.

CSS Border Style

The border-style property specifies what kind of border to display.

The following values are allowed:

dotted – Defines a dotted border
dashed – Defines a dashed border
solid – Defines a solid border
double – Defines a double border
groove – Defines a 3D grooved border. The effect depends on the border-color value
ridge – Defines a 3D ridged border. The effect depends on the border-color value
inset – Defines a 3D inset border. The effect depends on the border-color value
outset – Defines a 3D outset border. The effect depends on the border-color value
none – Defines no border
hidden – Defines a hidden border

The border-style property can have from one to four values (for the top border, right border, bottom border, and the left border).

Example

Demonstration of the different border styles:

p.dotted {border-style: dotted;}
p.dashed {border-style: dashed;}
p.solid {border-style: solid;}
p.double {border-style: double;}
p.groove {border-style: groove;}
p.ridge {border-style: ridge;}
p.inset {border-style: inset;}
p.outset {border-style: outset;}
p.none {border-style: none;}
p.hidden {border-style: hidden;}
p.mix {border-style: dotted dashed solid double;}

Margin CSS

Margins are used to create space around elements, outside of any defined borders.

CSS Margins

The CSS margin properties are used to create space around elements, outside of any defined borders.

With CSS, you have full control over the margins. There are properties for setting the margin for each side of an element (top, right, bottom, and left).

Margin – Individual Sides

CSS has properties for specifying the margin for each side of an element:

margin-top
margin-right
margin-bottom
margin-left

All the margin properties can have the following values:

auto – the browser calculates the margin
length – specifies a margin in px, pt, cm, etc.
% – specifies a margin in % of the width of the containing element
inherit – specifies that the margin should be inherited from the parent element

Tip: Negative values are allowed.

Example

Set different margins for all four sides of a <p> element:

p {
  margin-top: 100px;
  margin-bottom: 100px;
  margin-right: 150px;
  margin-left: 80px;
}

Margin – Shorthand Property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the margin properties in one property.

The margin property is a shorthand property for the following individual margin properties:

margin-top
margin-right
margin-bottom
margin-left

So, here is how it works:

If the margin property has four values:

margin: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
- top margin is 25px
- right margin is 50px
- bottom margin is 75px
- left margin is 100px

Example

Use the margin shorthand property with four values:

p {
margin: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
}

If the margin property has three values:

margin: 25px 50px 75px;
- top margin is 25px
- right and left margins are 50px
- bottom margin is 75px

Example

Use the margin shorthand property with three values:

p {
margin: 25px 50px 75px;
}

If the margin property has two values:

margin: 25px 50px;
- top and bottom margins are 25px
- right and left margins are 50px

Example

Use the margin shorthand property with two values:

p {
margin: 25px 50px;
}

If the margin property has one value:

margin: 25px;
- all four margins are 25px

Example

Use the margin shorthand property with one value:

p {
margin: 25px;
}

The auto Value

You can set the margin property to auto to horizontally center the element within its container.

The element will then take up the specified width, and the remaining space will be split equally between the left and right margins.

Example

Use margin: auto:

div {
width: 300px;
margin: auto;
border: 1px solid red;
}

The inherit Value

This example lets the left margin of the <p class=”ex1″> element be inherited from the parent element (<div>):

Example

Use of the inherit value:

div {
border: 1px solid red;
margin-left: 100px;
}

p.ex1 {
margin-left: inherit;
}

All CSS Margin Properties

Property	Description
margin	A shorthand property for setting all the margin properties in one declaration
margin-bottom	Sets the bottom margin of an element
margin-left	Sets the left margin of an element
margin-right	Sets the right margin of an element
margin-top	Sets the top margin of an element

Padding CSS

Padding is used to create space around an element’s content, inside of any defined borders.

CSS Padding

The CSS padding properties are used to generate space around an element’s content, inside of any defined borders.

With CSS, you have full control over the padding. There are properties for setting the padding for each side of an element (top, right, bottom, and left).

Padding – Individual Sides

CSS has properties for specifying the padding for each side of an element:

padding-top
padding-right
padding-bottom
padding-left

All the padding properties can have the following values:

length – specifies a padding in px, pt, cm, etc.
% – specifies a padding in % of the width of the containing element
inherit – specifies that the padding should be inherited from the parent element

Note: Negative values are not allowed.

Example

Set different padding for all four sides of a <div> element:

div {
padding-top: 50px;
  padding-right: 30px;
  padding-bottom: 50px;
  padding-left: 80px;
}

Padding – Shorthand Property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the padding properties in one property.

The padding property is a shorthand property for the following individual padding properties:

padding-top
padding-right
padding-bottom
padding-left

So, here is how it works:

If the padding property has four values:

padding: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
- top padding is 25px
- right padding is 50px
- bottom padding is 75px
- left padding is 100px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with four values:

div {
padding: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
}

If the padding property has three values:

padding: 25px 50px 75px;
- top padding is 25px
- right and left paddings are 50px
- bottom padding is 75px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with three values:

div {
padding: 25px 50px 75px;
}

If the padding property has two values:

padding: 25px 50px;
- top and bottom paddings are 25px
- right and left paddings are 50px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with two values:

div {
padding: 25px 50px;
}

If the padding property has one value:

padding: 25px;
- all four paddings are 25px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with one value:

div {
padding: 25px;
}

Padding and Element Width

The CSS width property specifies the width of the element’s content area. The content area is the portion inside the padding, border, and margin of an element (the box model).

So, if an element has a specified width, the padding added to that element will be added to the total width of the element. This is often an undesirable result.

Example

Here, the <div> element is given a width of 300px. However, the actual width of the <div> element will be 350px (300px + 25px of left padding + 25px of right padding):

div {
width: 300px;
padding: 25px;
}

To keep the width at 300px, no matter the amount of padding, you can use the box-sizing property. This causes the element to maintain its actual width; if you increase the padding, the available content space will decrease.

Example

Use the box-sizing property to keep the width at 300px, no matter the amount of padding:

div {
width: 300px;
padding: 25px;
box-sizing: border-box;
}